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Demonstrators clashed with security forces for the second day running in parts of Abidjan, media and other sources reported on Tuesday. However, by mid-afternoon, much of the city appeared calm even though business and public transport had not yet returned to normal.
The Ivorian government reported that 13 persons had died since the protest started on Monday against the exclusion of opposition leader Alassane Dramane Ouattara from the 10 December legislative elections.
Ouattara’s Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) was reported by AFP and other media to have put the death toll at about 30.
AFP reported seeing dead bodies on the streets of some neighbourhoods. The French news agency also reported seeing young men, their hands on their heads, in a military truck. Others removed barricades under police guard.
On Monday evening, the government announced a state of emergency and a curfew from 21:00 GMT to 06:00 GMT each night from 4 to 12 December.
Meanwhile, the deputy spokesperson for the French Foreign Ministry, Bernard Valero, said on Tuesday that France was “seriously worried” by the situation in Cote d’Ivoire, and had taken precautionary measures such as the closure of French schools in Abidjan, AFP reported.
“We are seriously worried by the violence between Rassemblement des Republicains (RDR) demonstrators and the security forces for two days now in Abidjan,” AFP quoted Valero as saying.
This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions
